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DIPOL Weekly Review - TV and SAT TV, CCTV, WLAN

No. 18/2011 (May 2, 2011)

Communication over the air. Wireless technologies have revolutionized telecommunications and human communication. Until recently, it seemed that the delays in the construction of telecommunications infrastructure in underdeveloped countries are impossible to catch up. Meanwhile, the number of mobile phone users rose to over 5.3 billion, breaking the access barrier to telecommunications services. Mobile phones can be used by 90% of the world's population living in 80% of all territories.

940 million of the subscribers can use broadband services (the number may grow to 1 billion in mid-2011). The percentage of subscribers using broadband mobile services will dramatically increase after the introduction of LTE - the technology being the next stage of development of mobile networks.

The data comes from this year's ITU report, which also states that the telecommunications market becomes increasingly competitive. In 2010, the market is considered competitive in the field of telecommunications services in over 90% countries in the world.

The prevalence of wireless systems has an impact on the use of social networking sites. Based on statistics compiled at the end of 2010, 40% of the 600 million Facebook users get access to the website through mobile devices. It is the same with 37% active users of the 200 million Twitter community.

Smartphones and broadband services facilitate and improve communication around the world

ITU (International Telecommunication Union) is one of the UN specialized agencies, established to standardize and regulate the radio and telecommunications market.

Antennas on the roofs of old buildings. Just look at the roofs of the buildings to determine when they were overhauled. The recently renovated do not contain multiple antennas - modern signal distribution systems do not require to install a separate antenna array for each user. Where can you find the roofs with "antenna forests" shown below? The answer at the end of this issue.

MMH-3000 headend in a chain of fitness clubs.Pure Life is a thriving network of modern health clubs, covering more and more cities in Poland. The investor has decided to equip all its locations with television networks based on headends with sets of QPSK CI receivers (QPSK/PAL transmodulators). Each set is responsible for the distribution of 8 satellite channels from a pay-TV platform. The number of outlets depends on the size of a particular club (from a dozen to a hundred).

The installation and configuration of the headend was commissioned to Innex company from Wroclaw, having years of experience in designing and implementing television and computer systems.

Individual channels are received by QPSK CI receivers RDC-313 R81710 and MPEG-2 TS decoder DM-313 R81712 (the use of master-slave technology lowers the cost of the headend). Each rack cabinet also houses the UC-380 R81700 base unit. The signal from the headend is distributed to the outlets through a set of splitters and taps, similarly to conventional wired television distribution systems.

Economical surveillance system for a small store. For financial reasons, owners of small businesses often do not install CCTV systems. They think that the costs of such systems are higher than the potential losses from small thefts. However, the mere presence of video monitoring deters potential thieves and provides security features not found in other systems.

An ideal basis for monitoring a small business is ATU DVR. It can record four 4CIF (704 x 576) channels at 12 fps each. The recording can be scheduled. H.264 compression and support for hard drive up to 2TB allow for storing large amounts of surveillance data. The VGA output with maximum resolution of 1024x768 can cooperate with an LCD or CRT monitor. An alternative is the BNC video output (CVBS).

The owner or other authorized person can access the system remotely via the web. In the case of several stores, the website may group the DVRs from the whole network. The system is simple to use and does no require to hire a qualified staff. There is an option that the user is notified by the system of alarm events via emails.

Image resolutions of analog cameras with interlaced scanning. The resolution of a camera measures its ability to provide detail in the images. Especially in the case of analog cameras, we should distinguish the vertical and horizontal resolution.

Vertical resolution

Horizontal resolution

Vertical resolution is the maximum number of horizontal lines that can be distinguished. Theoretically, the number is limited to 625 in the CCIR/PAL and to 525 in the EIA/NTSC systems, but the real vertical resolution is much smaller. Considering only active (visible) lines, the figures drop to 576 and 480 respectively. In practice, the perceived numbers of the horizontal lines are further reduced by Kell factor (0.7-0.9, depending on the features of the image sensor and display). So, the number of lines after scaling by the Kell factor drops to about 400 in PAL and 330 in NTSC systems.

Horizontal resolution is the maximum number of distinguishable vertical lines. The unit of this parameter is TVL. The horizontal resolution provided in technical specifications refers to the number of lines measured within the central part of the screen, equal in width to its height. Due to technical limitations, the actual horizontal resolution of analog CCTV images usually does not exceed 540 TVL.

With interlaced scanning, the information from the image sensor is collected twice for each frame. In a PAL system, odd lines are scanned first, then the even lines. The resulting image is a superposition of the both types of lines. With progressive scanning all the lines are scanned in one pass.

Wireless day/night IP camera from TP-LINK. TP-LINK TL-SC3171G K1152 is a convenient camera for monitoring homes or offices. The device can operate wirelessly at a speed of 54 Mb/s, being a perfect solution in places without wired network infrastructure.

After connecting the camera to a wireless or wired network, it is possible to view the images on a local PC (free software for simultaneous management of 16 cameras) or anywhere in the world via the Internet, also using compatible 3G phones.

Typical configuration of a system with the camera

TL-SC3171G is equipped with 12 IR LEDs and supports ICR function, which results in high quality images both day and night. The camera is configured in a very simple way, via a clear menu described in detail in the user manual.

Distinguishing features:

1/4" progressive scan CMOS,

Mechanically switching IR cut filter,

12 IR LEDs with range up to10 m,

Wireless 802.11b/g connectivity,

Two-way audio transmission,

Digital input and output ports (sensor/alarm),

MPEG-4 and MJPEG dual streaming,

3GPP compliance allowing for access on 3G phones,

Free software for simultaneous management of 16 cameras,

SSL/HTTPS encryption,

Embedded watchdog for automatic restart in the case of errors,

Email alerts on motion detection,

25 fps in VGA resolution.

TP-LINK takes the market by storm! The report from the In-Star organization on the popularity of terminal network devices in the fourth quarter of 2010 shows that the equipment manufactured by TP-LINK holds the first place among WiFi products and other equipment for distribution of broadband Internet in homes and small offices (customer-premises equipment - CPE). The source of the market success of TP-LINK devices is high quality.

Poland. The Kazimierz district of Krakow. Since its foundation in the fourteenth century to the early nineteenth century, Kazimierz was an independent town, located just south of Krakow and separated from the city by Old Vistula (currently non-existent branch of the river used for defensive purposes of the old Poland's capital). The north-eastern part of Kazimierz was the historic Jewish quarter. For many centuries, Kazimierz had been a place of coexistence and interaction of Jewish and Christian culture. Today, it is one of the major tourist attractions of Krakow, also an important center of cultural life of the city.

Satlook Micro HD - measurements in multiswitch systems. Satlook Micro HD R10740 meter has been designed and manufactured by engineers of Emitor company in Sweden. The main purpose of the R10740 meter is to help the installer find a chosen satellite (with Easy Find), and then to allow for precise alignment of the dish and LNB(s) by measuring a set of parameters of digital signals from selected transponders...